County election officials ask for dashboard, freeze window and improved communication amid TEAM problems

Representatives of county election officials told the committee that although TEAM is essential infrastructure, persistent functional gaps are increasing county workloads and jeopardizing timely list maintenance.

Jennifer Doinoff of the Texas Association of County Election Officials urged a detailed timeline of fixes and an operational dashboard to show outstanding technical tickets and resolution progress: "A clear plan about which issues will be fixed and by when... allows election officials to better prepare for their list maintenance and pre‑election responsibilities," she said. The association also recommended freezing non‑critical updates in the days leading up to early voting and Election Day to avoid unintended consequences.

County clerks and assessor‑collectors repeated those recommendations and added specific requests: more user‑friendly reporting tools, expanded training, a true test environment for new features and clearer Civics‑SOS‑county communication channels. Kim Wren (Tax Assessor‑Collectors) and Laura Rogers (County & District Clerks) described jury selection and batch printing problems and recommended stronger change management and direct county‑to‑vendor feedback channels.

Why it matters: counties are the primary administrators of elections and must meet statutory deadlines. County representatives proposed operational changes SOS could adopt quickly (dashboard, ticket tracking, freeze policy) and offered to pilot fixes with the vendor.

What SOS said: Atkins said monthly group calls with all 254 counties are in place and that the office is exploring dashboard and ticketing options; she cautioned that some proposed features have cost and resource implications.